Byron Bay Tennis Club has been named the Most Outstanding (Country) Tennis Club at the 2019 Tennis NSW Awards held last week.
The accolade was recognition that the club has put a renewed focus on becoming a community facility from 2012.
This lead to securing major investments in the facilities, as well as boosting membership and participation across the board, club coordinator Andrew Bates said.
‘Over this time registered players have gone from 60 to over 2000, and we have 200 children playing on a weekly basis,’ he said.
‘The club has invested over $100,000 on upgrades to the clubhouse and with Tennis NSW and Byron council we were able to obtain a grant for $150,000 to upgrade, resurface and fence the whole facility,’ he said.
This year the club hosted the Todd Woodbridge cup and 90 players from local schools participated in the event. Eight students from St Finbarr’s have gone on to compete in the finals in Sydney.
The club also hosted a Pro-Am event with Sam Groth, former Davis cup player and record holder for the fastest serve in the world.
‘The event was a huge success,’ Andrew said.
‘Our Adult Social play has been an incredible success and is booked out every week. All in all, the club has become a great community hub for all the local community to come and play tennis.’
The Tweed Heads Regional Tennis Centre was also nominated for the award.
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